One way of looking at the extraordinary career of Patrick Stewart, who has died aged 86, is that it went full circle – from the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1960s and 70s, through global stardom in the twin movie franchises of Star Trek and X-Men, then back to the RSC and the West End stage.
There was plenty more besides, but Stewart’s touching performance in 2005 in David Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre, at the Apollo in London, expressed the actor’s adaptability to a dressing room mood of generational change and evolution in the traditions of live performance.
